BVI Sailing Vacation (Part I)

Well, it has been quite awhile since I last wrote and I have a lot to write about; thus, without further adieu I bring part one of a trip report from our BVI Sailing Vacation – June 2011 (please excuse lack of proper grammar as this is taken verbatim from my journal):

June 25 - An Early and Tired Start

Late to bed and up early for a 6:30am departure from the Tulsa International Airport; a tired start to our vacation, as always ... 12.5 hours later (including 2 connections and 4+ hours in layovers) we were in St. Thomas, USVI at the Morning Star Marriott - 7:30pm and getting dark already (eastern time zone, but no observation of daylight savings).  I was trying hard to decompress and get in vacation mode, but not yet "feeling" it.

The beach at the resort is small, but nice and clean. I note there are very cool tennis courts overlooking the beach and the turquoise Caribbean water. We brought tennis racquets, but this is vacation and the kids (and Suzi and I) need a break from the sport we all love ... Hmmm, not sure we will play on those picturesque courts after all. Dinner at Coco Joes/ resort ... Not again...

June 26 - Boat Briefings and Possession of "Blue Tide"

Up at 7am (early for vacation) and a walk on the beach with coffee, Suzi and Gray (Kiki slept in and she needs it). Breakfast overlooking the beach/ ocean at Coco Joes (I thought I said "not again!").  The company of Suzi and Gray made up for the lack of the culinary experience. We were entertained by an aggressive seagull that "attacked" a diner and stole food off her plate while she was seated with fork and knife in hand. She screamed - LOUD - and eventually the wait staff saved her and the remains of her breakfast from the offending gull. More coffee and another walk along the beach listening to the crashing waves and watching the tiny beach begin to come alive with the early risers trying to find their favorite "spot."  I took some photos of the kids and Suzi to chronicle the affair - I endeavor to take photos this vacation!  We all grabbed a quick shower and a cab to the Road Town Fast Ferry ... destination: Tortola, BVI.

The ferry ride was uneventful, but I was excited to see the islands that I have been studying for the past 4 months. On the way in through "The Narrows" I was able to identify where we were by referencing my iNavX chart on my iPad and using land formations - this gave me a bit of confidence as almost all BVI navigation is by line of sight (but you still must identify the correct island).  Customs was a breeze and I wondered - why even bother?  Bags were not scrutinized, we were not scrutinized - but I'm not complaining as the whole process took less than 15 minutes and we were at the Moorings marina by 1:30pm, a full 2.5 hours ahead of my carefully thought out schedule!  Can you tell I'm not on "Island time" yet? 

We were assigned to "Blue Tide", a 40 foot Beneteau monohull with a dual helm.  This was a bit intimidating as this was my first charter and the biggest boat I had ever been on was my 30 foot Catalina.  Andre performed our boat briefing and then I went to see Michael for the Skipper's meeting. The boat briefing is where the "real" information is exchanged.  It is a time where you learn all important aspects of the boat's systems and where they "feel" you out to make sure that you know your way around the $$$$k boat they are releasing for your unsupervised week long journey. The Skipper's meeting, on the other hand, is worthless ... almost.  You cover information on possible itineraries, different anchorages, where to drop your garbage and possible re-provisioning places - the type of information that should be well studied or known from previous experiences.  If you don't know it by the Skipper's meeting, then you will be overwhelmed with information and not recall a thing.  At that point, Blue Tide was then "officially" released to our possession and I was told we were free to go at first light.

As we settled on Blue Tide and stored our clothes in our respective cabins, I helped Suzi check all our boat provisions and store all food and beverages in various parts of the boat. Hopefully I will remember where we put the wine!  Then, Suzi washed all fruit and chopped the veggies - what a head start for the week (later in the trip, we wished she would have pre-mixed Bloody-Mary's and cut lime wedges ... difficult tasks while underway - heeled and bouncing through waves).  Instead of dining out for dinner, we had smoked Gouda cheese and crackers, a salad and lasagna baked in the on board oven.

Gray to bead early ... Kiki and Suzi are watching a DVD ... I'm on deck finishing a glass of wine ... writing, thinking and feeling like I'm almost on vacation and island time!

More Education/ More Experience

We booked our BVI bareboat charter vacation with The Moorings, but I had never been on a sailboat other than on Grand Lake, Oklahoma.  The biggest waves I had encountered were the wakes kicked off by motor boats – 2 to 3 feet, maybe.  Hence, my decision for more sailing education and some ocean/ offshore experience.

My brother, Monty, and I scheduled our ASA Advanced course through South Coast Sailing Adventures.  We were introduced to Cpt. Lucy and Cpt. Mike, our instructor.  The plan was to sail from Kemah, TX out into the Gulf of Mexico approximately 10 miles offshore and south to Freeport, TX.  We would dock in Freeport, spend the night and return through the Intercoastal Waterway (ICW).  It all sounded pretty simple with two big exceptions: 1) it was really windy (20 to 25 sustained) and 2) offshore water conditions were very rough.  

Monty and I provisioned the boat for our first night sleeping aboard Mike’s Ericsson 30.  It was mid-April and the Texas Gulf coast air was pleasant and comfortable.  We went out for a bite to eat with Mike and got to know him a bit over a few drinks.  It was an early night; however, as we planned for an early morning start with some class work and to get familiar with the boat’s systems before we embarked on our 70nm sail to Freeport.

The evening was peaceful and I slept well on the boat– something that I have learned I like.  We rose for an early breakfast and began reviewing materials covered in earlier ASA classes.  We also covered the boat’s systems and prepared to leave the marina which we did by 10:30 AM.  Soon thereafter we were passing the Kemah Boardwalk and were on our way navigating through some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and on into the Gulf of Mexico. 

The 20 knots of sustained wind was more than I had experienced in my lake sailing– when it got that windy I simply did not go out.  We had a double reef in the main and perhaps about one-half of the roller furling jib out.  But, what really got my juices flowing were the waves once we got off-shore.  The waves rolled in just forward off our stern to port and where 7 to 9 feet.  They seemed massive – especially as we would slide down the face of one and looked up at the peak of the next.  This impression was compounded once the sun set and the night sky and water surrounding us were ink black, but for the speckle of stars above.  Also, Mike’s boat did not have an auto-pilot so we took 2 hour shifts at the helm for a total of 14 hours before arriving at the marina in Freeport just before 1 AM.  The sail was exhilarating.  It was also exhausting.  

The next day was an easy motor-sail up the ICW.  Early that afternoon we anchored just behind the Galveston Yacht Club (Monty and I grew up in Galveston and it was interesting to see the island from this perspective) and finished our course work and studied for the test.  It was a great evening.  We grilled steaks and drank wine with our new friend, Mike.  The next morning started with the test which Mike graded on our way back to Kemah.  

I continued my education and gained some valuable sailing experience all leading to more confidence.  I also had a great time with my brother.

We Need A Vacation

My two kids, like many, are involved in extracurricular activities.  Vary rare is the day where they just sit around at home watching television or playing video games.  To say that their schedule keeps my wife and I busy is an understatement.  Since we both work fulltime, we not only have to keep our respective business calendars, but coordinate with the kids’ calendars too. 

One of their main activities is competitive tennis.  For those families not indoctrinated in the nuance of junior tennis it may be hard to fully comprehend, but I know there are other sports where such a competitive endeavor requires not only a serious commitment from the child, but also from the family as a whole.  This is the case for our family.  The sacrifices that we must make for them to compete at a high level is not only our immediate family, but also our extended family who do not see us as often as we would all like, because our weekends and holidays are spent traveling from tournament to tournament in cities across the country near and far. 

Shortly after Christmas 2010 (spent at a national tennis tournament in Tucson, Arizona over 1,000 miles from our home), my wife and I began to look at our calendars for the first six months of 2011.  We tried to identify “open” weekends to go to the lake and see family.  It was frustrating.  As we looked towards late spring and summer, it was even worse as that is heavy tennis season with all the major tournaments scheduled.  By the way, there is no “off” season in tennis.  We saw a brief open window at the end of June and early July.  It would, however, mean that my daughter would miss a major tournament in which she did well during the 2010 event.  Missing it this year would cause her national ranking to drop. 

I was conflicted about telling my daughter she could not play, but I decided it was time for us to take a family vacation.  A vacation separate and apart from the stress of a tennis tournament where every day is scheduled around match times, warm up times, eating and going to bed early to start it all over again the next day.  We needed a “real” vacation - a vacation that we would all remember for the rest of our lives.  Suzi and I slept on it and the next morning, early February, I booked flights to and reserved a bareboat charter in THE BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS.  My Quest to Sail continues!

"Let there be (LED) light"

I mean no disrespect to the man (or woman) upstairs; I am just dang proud of a recently completed boat project.  My proudness stems from the fact that I have absolutely no DIY skills.  Here, I replaced all of the old interior incandescent lights and fixtures with new LEDs from Seasense*.  On a 1 to 10 complexity scale, this probably was a 2 or 3, but I was still intimidated.  Also, in addition to a screwdriver, I had to use a drill which really raised the stakes …

The plan was to replace five of these guys:

With five of these guys:

Before:

After:

Needless to say, I am very happy with the result.  The difference in light is HUGE and the clarity of the light just makes the boat feel “cleaner.”  Three of the five lights are white/red combination (two of which are in the v-birth) to help with night vision.  The success of this project has also given me a bit of confidence, so I am already planning the next one.  Stay tuned... 

*Purchased from iboats.com.

What is a Tontine?

A tontine is an investment scheme for raising capital, devised in the 17th century and relatively widespread in the 18th and 19th.  It combines features of a group annuity and a lottery.  Each subscriber pays an agreed sum into the fund, and thereafter receives an annuity.  As members die, their shares devolve to the other participants, and so the value of each annuity increases.  On the death of the last member, the scheme is wound up.  In a variant, which has provided the plot device for most fictional versions, on the death of the penultimate member the capital passes to the last survivor.  See Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tontine.

That, my friends, is the name of our - new to us – sailboat, a 1980 Catalina 30.  Actually, I really like this name and think it rather clever for the right owner (or, more appropriately, joint owners); however, Suzi and I found it a bit depressing and in no way the right name for our boat.  It also makes "early" retirement less appealing.  Ha!  And, from everything that I have read about sailboats, I expect it to be the opposite of an investment strategy ... I think a disinvestment strategy is more likely.  So, we set about coming up with a new name.  After some fun banter, we quite agreeably settled on MoQuila, the name of a restaurant we found and grew fond of while traveling in Boca Raton, FL (fairly easy to surmise what the main ingredient is in the restaurant's drink specialties).  So I designed and then ordered custom vinyl boat lettering from BoatU.S. 

It took Suzi and me the better part of a Saturday to install the lettering (including lots of cussing and a few cocktails), but I am extremely happy with the final outcome.  The following morning we had our renaming ceremony.  It was private affair shared by just the two of us (the kids were not all that excited about waking up early on a Sunday morning).  Without further adieu, I am proud to introduce MoQuila...